Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

LQDA has been the topic of a number of other reports. Oppenheimer set a $75.00 target price on Liquidia in a report on Friday, June 5th. Bank of America boosted their price target on Liquidia from $79.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 13th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on Liquidia from $62.00 to $108.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Liquidia in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Lifesci Capital downgraded Liquidia from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Liquidia presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $98.08.

Liquidia Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ LQDA opened at $66.74 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $77.47 and a 200 day moving average of $59.45. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 2.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 48.72 and a beta of 0.53. Liquidia has a 12-month low of $21.15 and a 12-month high of $93.61.

Liquidia (NASDAQ:LQDA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.76 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $171.68 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $168.48 million. Liquidia had a return on equity of 149.65% and a net margin of 30.74%.The firm’s revenue was up 1842.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.49) earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Liquidia will post 2.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Liquidia

In related news, insider Jason Adair sold 73,631 shares of Liquidia stock in a transaction on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.09, for a total transaction of $5,087,165.79. Following the transaction, the insider owned 174,606 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,063,528.54. The trade was a 29.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Roger Jeffs sold 35,249 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $71.51, for a total transaction of $2,520,655.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,130,426 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $80,836,763.26. This represents a 3.02% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders have sold 705,027 shares of company stock worth $54,473,044 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 25.60% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in LQDA. WINTON GROUP Ltd purchased a new stake in Liquidia during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $335,000. Arizona State Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of Liquidia by 5.4% in the second quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 17,627 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,405,000 after buying an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Nykredit A S bought a new position in shares of Liquidia during the second quarter worth $177,000. Corient Private Wealth LP bought a new position in shares of Liquidia during the second quarter worth $758,000. Finally, VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new position in Liquidia during the second quarter valued at $1,236,000. 64.54% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Liquidia

Liquidia Corporation is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing medicines for patients with serious cardiopulmonary conditions, including pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). The company is headquartered in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and serves healthcare providers and patients primarily in the United States.

Liquidia’s lead product is Yutrepia, an inhaled formulation of treprostinil designed for the treatment of PAH. The company has also developed treprostinil injection products and is pursuing additional therapies for rare cardiopulmonary diseases.